News

Apple debuts fifth-generation iPod touch at $299/$399

By Jeremy Horwitz ● Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The fifth-generation iPod touch was introduced today by Apple at a media event in San Francisco. Confirming part leaks and rumors, the new model includes a 4” Retina display, a new aluminum back with a rear flash and microphone alongside the iSight camera, and an A5 processor. It weighs only 3.1 ounces, and measures 4.86 × 2.31 × 0.24”, the thinnest and lightest iPod touch yet released.

In addition to black and white versions of the new iPod touch, pink, blue, green, and red versions have been added as firsts for the family, each very similar from the front to the fourth-generation model thanks to the use of only white or black painted glass bezels. Headphone port and speaker holes on the bottom are joined by a new Lightning connector port, replacing the prior 30-Pin Dock Connector and requiring an adapter for old accessories. Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n dual-band support are now included, along with major camera improvements—a 720p FaceTime HD camera on the front and 1080p / 5-Megapixel iSight camera on the rear. Siri and AirPlay mirroring have been added for the first time in an iPod touch.

Unusually, a swirled metal button on the bottom left of the back turns out to be a camera hole-sized nub for a wrist strap called “iPod touch loop” to attach. Each iPod touch comes with a color-matched loop wrist strap, as well as EarPods, Apple’s newly redesigned earphones, and a Lightning to USB Cable.

The new iPod touch will be available in October for $299 (32GB) or $399 (64GB), with pre-orders to begin on September 14. Apple will continue to sell fourth-generation iPod touches for $199 (16GB) or $249 (32GB).

Comments

1

Given the lack of anything *quite* in the same niche or caliber on the market, we’ll likely be pre-ordering two of the 5G touches, but I can’t say I’m exactly wowed considering the pricing.

On the good side, we do away with the toy camera of the 4G, processor is a HUGE upgrade, presumably the RAM will be on par with current devices, and my daughter is going to love SIRI, choice of colors is cute…

Also love that they’ve abandoned the 8GB & 16GB capacities and just offer 32GB & 64GB models, it’s about time seeing as how there are plenty of big name game apps out there coming in at well over a GB installed, and purchased video content is mainly just HD anymore.

On the bad side, still no GPS, battery life is just as bad as the 4G even though, once again, gaming is what they hyped it for: most graphically intense games drain the battery in a couple of hours, often less, on the 4G, so I imagine much of the same will happen with the 5G.

On the awful side, they’re keeping the 4G touch in production with only modest price discounts compared to the 5G. This is a bone headed decision. If all you want is a pocket friendly media player, they’ve got your back with the return to functionality in the nano, but as a “smart device”? The 4G touch is like an 80 y.o. with a walker at this point. Most high profile games, if they even claim to run on the 4G touch, have issues when they first come out because devs don’t test on it much and the RAM is so restrictive, even Apple’s own utility apps have grown slower and slower as each update increases their processor and RAM demands (I can’t even imagine how unhappy people moving to iOS 6 on a 4G touch are going to be). This is like keeping the 2G touch in production along side the larger capacity 3G touch all over again. A lot of cost conscious consumers are going to get a bad impression as app after app this coming year either can’t even be installed or suffers from massive stability issues. Would have been better to axe the 4G and just make a $229 16GB 5G.

Still, the pricing is just flat out non-competitive and gives me no hope whatsoever for an iPad mini that is going to reach outside the consumer who already wanted an Apple device, which is puzzling since the only reason to make an iPad mini is to try and stop people moving to Amazon’s comparably impressive combination of services.

Posted by Code Monkey in East Amherst, NY, USA on September 12, 2012 at 3:34 PM (CDT)

1

I just don’t understand why the iphone 5 & 5G touch are the same price. Considering the better chip, camera, sensors on the iphone, logically I should switch to an iphone (which I really don’t want to do). Now I’m gonna wait for the ipad mini to compare its features… I’m totally confused. Or am I missing something?

Posted by L in East Amherst, NY, USA on September 13, 2012 at 4:57 AM (CDT)

1

@2: You’re missing the minimum ~$700 additional a year for the cheapest, most restrictive plan you can get just to use the iPhone. The up front costs for the iPhones are a drop in the bucket of their real costs. A touch? You buy a good case to protect from drops and you’re done.

The issue over *why* Apple still does this is that you’re either at a point in your finances and/or lifestyle where you’re already paying a cell+data plan monthly or not; and once you are, there’s no reason to buy a touch over an iPhone because Apple does price them the same up front. Of course, it’s clear that *both* are overpriced, but one is a lot shinier.

As for your bit about waiting for the iPad mini, that had been part of my original plan, but after seeing the pricing for the 5G touch I’m figuring there’s not much point. It’s clear that Apple isn’t going to try and compete with the new Fires (else why is it that the cheapest new touch costs as much as the new Fire HD), so you’re going to be looking at a modest discount from the 3G iPad, probably the same price point they’re selling the iPad 2 at now (which I think will get discontinued when the iPad mini launches).

Apple is seemingly drawing a line in the sand on their pricing and now we all get to grab the popcorn and see what the general consumers flock toward: absolutely shiny but absolutely overpriced from the market gorilla, or not quite so shiny, but smartly priced from the competition.

Posted by Code Monkey in East Amherst, NY, USA on September 13, 2012 at 7:08 AM (CDT)